So over the long weekend I finally replaced my front rotors and pads. I assumed the job was going to take me about 4 hours. A shop local to me said they could do it in under 3 so I assumed I could do it in 4. I will let everyone know that this is the first time I have ever attempted to do a brake job myself. For rotors I used DBA 4000 series and Hawk HPS pads and I made sure I had all the necessary tools.





To start off with everything went terrible I initially had planned on doing the job tuesday night but the place where I bought everything neglected to include the pads with the rotors which didn't end being the worst thing. Anyways to start I realized the floor jack I purchased was too tall to fit under the car to reach the front jack point.





I fixed this problem by using the normal hand jack to get the car up a bit so the floor jack could fit under the car. I got the car on the jack stands which took 25 minutes I realized I forgot to loosen the lug nuts so I had to lower the car and start over. finally I got the back up on the jack stands and took the tires off.





So now I was ready to go, I got the primary caliper bolts off no problem and rested the caliper on tall bucket making sure not crimp or bend the line. The next step was to remove the secondary caliper mounting bolts which proved to be extremely difficult. I got the first one off (the bottom one) with a little trouble but the top was impossible. While try to remove the bolt my wrench slipped off the bolt just as I put all force and strength into the wrench. This made me essentially punch myself in the jaw as hard as I could which was no biggie except I had my tongue hanging out of my mouth. I cut it open pretty bad and it bled everywhere. I do have some pics of this but I don't want to make everyone sick. So after some first aid I got back on the job. I realized the problem was not so much with the bolt as to with my wrench which was too short so I couldn't get enough leverage on the bolt. I solved this problem by cutting the end of an old ski pole and putting it on the end of the wrench.





So after I got the these bolts off the job was a breeze, I meant to take more pics of the install but at that point I just wanted to get the job done.





I got everything back on bolted up and bled the brakes. The only other problem I had was bleeding the brakes, I couldn't figure out how to use this one man bleeder kit.




Luckily my buddy stopped by so I had him help me and gave him a few beers for his troubles. Well here are some pics of the finished job, overall I really like the brakes, I am still not 100% sure that I bled the brakes right but I have been told that if there is any air in the lines then the brake pedal would be extremely squishy which it isn't.




I also ordered a counter sunk shift **** from Rick's at the same time which I love.



Modified by TypeR324 at 9:42 PM 5/29/2008


Modified by TypeR324 at 9:48 PM 5/29/2008

 

please resize the pics next time

btw its good to see you got the job done and everything went ok at the end.
Nice work!

 

Hard work paid off ...

...but the center cap

 

Ok I resized the pics. You don't like the center cap?? I actually bought the car with them like that, I had every intention of chaging them but I think they have grown on me. I have an extra set of AP1 rims that I could take the center caps from. Hmmm.

 

you can just peal off the ricks sticker. btw whare did you get thoes rotors and how much did they run???

 

Hmm maybe I will peel the sticker off. I got the rotors from buybrakes.com and they were about $100 per rotor.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by A_P_1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hard work paid off ...

</TD></TR></TABLE>

what hard work?

 

Ignore the haters... Thanks for the writeup!

 

good stuff...

ur install sounds like everyone that i do... drinking beers, hurting myself, def blood involved, and it always takes longer than u plan... but its sooooo self satisfying doing it urself...

 

Yea I would agree it was very self satisfying and I have to say I am looking forward to the next job for my car.

 

What would that be?

 

Not sure yet, I will probably need to replace the rear brakes in the next year or so. Other than that really no maintenance, the next parts id possibly like to buy are headers (not sure if worth the $$), exhaust (very easy install), maybe coilovers. I would like to get some more goodies as I only have K&N FIPK. The problem is I feel that the only things that really will add any power is limited to FI which I cant and would not attempt to do myself. I have every intention of keeping my S NA so thats out. I had been looking online and talking to a few shops and the Greddy Emanage Ultimate seems to make ok power or maybe a AEM EMS but again I cant install either myself. I have been happy with my car relatively stock but the other day I got beat on the hwy by a WRX 5-Door (wagon) with a chip and exhaust, I know the S isnt meant for that but I still didnt like seeing the tail lights of wagon. Most likely I will keep the car the way it is and save my money for a house in a few months which means there is no more work for me to do on the car.




Modified by TypeR324 at 11:49 AM 6/3/2008

 

Scratch that I just ordered a Berk test pipe, I never really wanted to get one just because I was worried that the car would smell terrible (may scare girls away). But for $125 shipped how can you go wrong, looks like that will be my project next weekend, should be very easy.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TypeR324 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Scratch that I just ordered a Berk test pipe, I never really wanted to get one just because I was worried that the car would smell terrible (may scare girls away). But for $125 shipped how can you go wrong, looks like that will be my project next weekend, should be very easy.</TD></TR></TABLE>

30 mins tops

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TypeR324 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Scratch that I just ordered a Berk test pipe, I never really wanted to get one just because I was worried that the car would smell terrible (may scare girls away). But for $125 shipped how can you go wrong, looks like that will be my project next weekend, should be very easy.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Another write up maybe?? I have been thinking of getting a test pipe myself.

 

Yea i'll do a write up when I put it on, but honestly for $125 bucks its a no brainer.